For many centuries handbags have been extensively used by both men and women. Though they were originally created to serve the purpose of providing a place to carry things, over the years they have evolved into a significant fashion piece. Few, if any, women now have only one hand bag. They usually own many handbags, each having different styles and/or colors. Presumably, each of these different handbags has been purchased to complement a particular set of clothing.
In order to reduce the cost of purchasing handbags, reversible handbags have been provided. In this way, a woman would have a single bag which could be used with two different color fashion designs. Over the years, such reversible handbags have had moderate popularity. An example of one such reversible handbag is one designed by Johnston (U.S. Pat. No. 3,550,663).
One of the major problems affecting the success and popularity of such reversible handbags is that there is not yet an adequate means to close these bags. Many of the bags, such as Johnston's, are open-topped and there has been no attempt to provide a closure means. Other designers and manufacturers have attempted to use snaps or the like, but this has proved equally ineffective. The crux of the problem is that the items inside the bag may fall from the bag when the orientation of the bag is upset. Further, inclement weather can frequently cause a problem. Rain, snow and other unwanted elements are free to fall inside the bag and cause damage to the contents.